Report: 4 billion birds die annually in building crashes, cat attacks

The American Bird Conservancy recommends using tape and decals to prevent birds from crashing into windows.

The largest and most comprehensive study of bird collision deaths ever finds that nearly 1 billion birds die in building crashes every year, a shocking number that has fans of the feather creatures urging construction companies to use new materials to stop the annihilation.

The mortality study from over 92,000 records found that between 365 million and 988 million birds crash and die in the United States. The number easily climbs over 1 billion when reports from Canada are included.

Only cats are a bigger danger to birds, killing as many as 3 billion a year in the U.S.

The report was composed by members of the Smithsonian Conservation Biology Institute and U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and was circulated by the Washington based American Bird Conservancy.

According to American Bird Conservancy’s Christine Sheppard, who heads the only national collisions campaign program in the U.S., the study is a further demonstration that collision reduction efforts are needed in building construction.

Some of the ideas they suggest are easy, such as putting "bird tape" on windows to scare the birds away. Decals work too.